New Jersey Public Safety Employee Lawyer & Attorney : Arpaia & Crivelli Law Firm : Police, Firefighters, Workers Compensation, Discipline Representation : New Jersey

In the matter of O’Rourke v. City of Lambertville, Docket No. A-0481-07T3, the Defendants appeal the trial court’s decision: (1) reversing the Lambertville City Council’s decision removing Plaintiff, Michael O’Rourke, from his position as a police officer; (2) reinstating Plaintiff to his position; and (3) denying their motion for reconsideration. Defendant, Bruce Cocuzza, is the city’s civilian police director. Plaintiff, a sergeant first class, was the police department’s Terminal Agency Coordinator (“TAC”) for the National Crime Information Center (“NCIC”) system, which contains a wide array of law enforcement information. 

The city charged Plaintiff with conducting unauthorized and improper employee background investigations, in defiance of Cocuzza’s direct order, and engaging in conduct subversive to the good order and discipline of the department in doing so. At the disciplinary hearing, Cocuzza testified that he and Plaintiff were discussing the temporary transfer of an employee from city hall to the department when Plaintiff told him that the employee would have to submit to a background check or be fingerprinted for security purposes. Cocuzza said he told Plaintiff that no action should be taken until Cocuzza received written authorization from “somebody in authority” and spoke with the city attorney regarding same. Later, Cocuzza learned Plaintiff had performed background investigations of five civilian employees of the department, including Cocuzza, without authorization.

After the officer assigned who was assigned to the department’s internal affairs unit declined to investigate because of his long-term social relationship with Plaintiff, Cocuzza decided to conduct the investigation himself. In his report, Cocuzza wrote that Plaintiff had been insubordinate and that his actions constituted a serious breach of discipline and a flagrant abuse of authority. 

Plaintiff testified that he performed the checks under his authority as TAC officer, indicating that under the State’s security policy anyone with access to the NCIC system had to have a background check and fingerprints taken. He also stated that he understood Cocuzza to mean that he should not ask anyone for their fingerprints, which he did not do. He did concede that he did criminal checks on five employees, including Cocuzza.

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In the case of Spinks et al. v. The Township of Clinton et al., 52-2-1684, The Township of Clinton sought to bar the release of an internal affairs investigation of the police department that was submitted to the trial court as part and parcel to a summary judgment proceeding.  The Township argued that the disclosure of these types of documents are forbidden by law and under common law principles of fairness, the township's interest in confidentiality  outweigh the public's interest in accessing the records. 

In making this decision the trial court applied the balancing test articulated in the matter of Hammock v. Hoffman-La Roche Inc. 142 N.J. 356 (1995).  After applying the balancing test that weighs the township's interest in confidentiality  versus the public's interest in accessing the records, the trial court held that the records could be released but only after all personal information was redacted from the records and with held.  In examining this issue on appeal, The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, remanded the case to the trial court for further redaction of the records for confidentiality purposes that was consistent with the trial court's previous ruling.

This case stands for the principle that in certain circumstances internal affairs reports and records can be released to the public, however only after the court conducts an "in camera" review of the records and makes a decision concerning the redaction of personal information that will be necessary to preserve privacy.  Therefore, if you are looking for confidential records and reports that were produced by internal affairs, you may be able to get your hands on them in certain circumstances.

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